Technologizer

Internet Explorer’s New Spokesperson

Friday, November 13, 2009

Now, this is an IE ad that’s entertaining rather than repulsive–and probably a smart choice of an endorser of interest to the sort of folks who IE8 and its Web Slices feature will appeal to the most. Kinda reminds me of when Microsoft dragged out Queen Latifah to pal around with Bill [...]

iDon’t Think the Droid’s iPhone Attack Will Work

Sunday, November 1, 2009

30 Comments

Verizon is spending a lot of money advertising its upcoming Droid smartphone. It’s everywhere–from commercials on TV to bills posted on construction sites. But I question whether the iPhone-mocking focus of the ad campaign can generate broad appeal. The ads target the iPhone’s shortcomings, such as its lack of a camera flash and the rigid application development [...]

Windows 7 and Family Guy: The Arranged Marriage is Over

Monday, October 26, 2009

7 Comments

Remember that upcoming FOX special starring Seth McFarlane, the creator of Family Guy–the one sponsored entirely by Windows 7, with the operating system worked into the show itself? Musing about it a couple of weeks ago, I said “there seems to be a basic cognitive dissonance at work when a supposedly take-no-prisoners, slay-all-sacred-cows kinda sensibility [...]

Apple’s Windows 7 Bashing Begins Now

Thursday, October 22, 2009

23 Comments

Hmmm! As I learned from All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher, even Apple ended up joining in the Windows 7 launch festivities today, in its own special way–by premiering three new “Get a Mac” ads that are specifically about the arrival of the new OS. They’re very funny, very clever, very mean, at least somewhat effective, and–at [...]

Windows 7 Ads With Grownups in Them

Thursday, October 22, 2009

6 Comments

Maybe Kylie won’t be doing all the heavy lifting of marketing Windows 7 after all. With Windows 7’s official rollout, Microsoft has segued into a new twist on its “I’m a PC” tagline: “I’m a PC, and Windows 7 was my idea.” As Microsoft ads go, I like this one–it’s less patronizing than most. On [...]

Twenty-Three Years of Windows Launch Oddities

Thursday, October 22, 2009

6 Comments

Later today in New York City, Microsoft will be hosting its Windows 7 launch event. I won’t be there, but I have a good excuse: I decided to stay home in San Francisco and go to the last day of the Web 2.0 Summit to see Tim Berners-Lee speak. I hope everyone who makes the [...]

Windows 7: That’s Infomercialtainment!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

1 Comment

Part of the upcoming extravaganza of Windows 7 marketing which will presumably soon be upon us involves a November 8th Fox TV special starring Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane. It’s sponsored by Microsoft and has Windows 7 references woven in. (I refuse to call it “commercial-free,” but it’ll have no traditional breaks for standard commercials.) Ars [...]

1984 All Over Again

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

4 Comments

As TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid has reported, DoubleTwist–a media manager application that, among other things, serves as a bridge between iTunes and non-Apple devices–is promoting a new version that debuts on October 6th with an ad that looks…eerily familiar: Yup, the ad is an animated remake of Apple’s legendary “1984″ commercial, directed by [...]

The Yahoo Ad Onslaught Begins

Monday, September 28, 2009

6 Comments

Yahoo plans to spend $100 million marketing itself, and it’s posted the ad that kicks off the new campaign: If you showed an alien this ad, he (she? it?) would come to the conclusion that Yahoo is a place where nobody’s old, bald, fat, or ugly–and where nobody uses computers. Whatever problems [...]

Making Money from Podcasting: Wizzard Media

Monday, September 28, 2009

20 Comments

(This interview is part of David Spark’s (@dspark) series “Making Money from Podcasting” (read summary “9 Successful Techniques for Making Money from Podcasting”) where he interviews podcasters who are actually generating revenue from their podcasts. There are many techniques, and here’s one person’s tale of how he’s making money from podcasting.) Got audience? We’ll get you [...]

5Words for Tuesday, September 15th 2009

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

0 Comments

Like 5Words? Subscribe via RSS. How NYTimes.com suffered malware attack. Lenovo launches multi-touch laptops. Tearing down the Zune HD. PC games for five bucks. Obligatory Apple tablet rumor story. Seagate’s second-generation TV box. HP MediaSmart servers: Mac friendlier. Bing Visual Search? No thanks. Google wants to liberate data. Aardvark launches cool iPhone app.

Windows 7: The Ads Begin

Thursday, September 10, 2009

9 Comments

Um, some of them will star grownups, right? Even so, it’s nice to see a Windows ad that’s actually about Windows… (Via Joe Wilcox.)

Microsoft to Best Buy Salespeople: Windows Good, Macs Bad!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

2 Comments

Over at Ars Technica, there’s an interesting piece on training materials prepared by Microsoft for Best Buy staffers making the case that Windows 7 PCs are preferable to Macs. Most of the points in Windows’ favor that the materials raise are true; it’s just that anything that might tend to favor the Mac is left [...]

Bing Ads Prompt Lawsuit

Thursday, August 27, 2009

2 Comments

Advertising Age is reporting that a Delaware company is suing Microsoft’s ad agency over ads for Bing that were integrated into the TV show The Philanthropist. I’m not a big prime-time watcher, so this is the first I’ve heard of this: Commercials for Bing were filmed on-set using actors from the show, which made its debut [...]

What If All Web Ads Were Blocked? Ten Speculative Scenarios

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

22 Comments

Last week, I blogged about a post over at Windows IT Pro that posited that all browsers would include ad-blocking as a standard feature within five years, and that it would be turned on by default. My post inspired some interesting debate both on this site and off it. I also included a poll: A [...]

Should Browsers Block Ads by Default?

Friday, August 7, 2009

25 Comments

[UPDATE: There's a great conversation spurred by this post going on over at Louis Gray's FriendFeed.] Windows IT Pro’s Orin Thomas has a piece up with the title In five years will block Internet advertisements by default. He isn’t quite that extreme in the story itself, but he does say that he thinks the popularity of [...]